Our next guest is an Albanian-born entrepreneur. His professional path is closely connected to Bulgaria. But his impact as an entrepreneur and investor has spread throughout the whole region of Southeast Europe. Elvin Guri is currently managing the VC fund -  INVENIO Partners, advising and mentoring companies from the biotech industry to healthcare, food, and real estate. Elvin Guri co-created Jet Finance, the largest independent consumer lending company in SouthEastern Europe which he exited to BNP Paribas in 2007. He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford. He has supported ..read more

Our next guest is a hardware engineer building the future of biometric security. Vince Gaydarzhiev is the founder of the US-Bulgarian company Alcatraz AI. The hardware-as-a-service startup offers autonomous access control that uses facial biometrics, 3D sensing, and AI. Among the customers of Alcatraz AI are Fortune 500 companies, including telecoms and government-owned banks. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Vince worked as an engineer for high-profile companies like Apple and Nvidia. He holds several engineering degrees from Stanford and the universities of Southern California and Florida. I ..read more

Our next guest is one of the power ladies of the Bulgarian VC sector. Elina Halatcheva is a managing partner at BrightCap Ventures. With a background in finance and investment banking, Elina has an MBA from Stanford University. She grew as a professional in the US and UK markets and her expertise ranges from investment banking to e-commerce and real estate. Eventually, Elina came back to Bulgaria to contribute to the growth of the local tech ecosystem. As an investor Elina is also a part of the European Women in VC initiative, trying to bridge the gap for funding for female founders. In her co ..read more

Our next guest is one of the power ladies of the Bulgarian VC sector. Elina Halatcheva is a managing partner at BrightCap Ventures. With a background in finance and investment banking, Elina has an MBA from Stanford University. She grew as a professional in the US and UK markets and her expertise ranges from investment banking to e-commerce and real estate. Eventually, Elina came back to Bulgaria to contribute to the growth of the local tech ecosystem. As an investor Elina is also a part of the European Women in VC initiative, trying to bridge the gap for funding for female founders. In her co ..read more

Our next guest is a seasoned executive who has walked the road from corporate to entrepreneurship. After more than 20 years in different positions in the IT industry, Dimitar Dimitrov founded his own company. Digital Lights is a software company building innovative solutions for the mobility industry. Recently, it has been ranked the 3d fastest-growing IT company in Bulgaria. Dimitar Dimitrov is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics at Sofia University. His own Alma Mater, where he’s currently also part of the Alumni Board. In his conversation with Georgi Nenov, Dimitar ..read more

Our next guest’s mission is to make artificial intelligence more secure and reliable. Petar Tsankov is at the unique intersection of science and entrepreneurship. Until recently, He’s was researcher and a lecturer at ETH Zurich, and currently co-founder of LatticeFlow, a company helping machine learning teams build and deploy trustworthy AI. Before that, Petar already had one successful exit. He sold his first company ChainSecurity to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Petar is the proud owner of “The John Atanassov” award - an initiative that supports young Bulgarian inventors in the area of infor ..read more

Our next guest discovered entrepreneurship when he was a teenager. Since then Radu Negulescu has been running multiple successful businesses. While still in university, he founded Trencadis, a company developing IT solutions for governmental institutions and businesses. Trencadis was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in Central Europe by Deloitte. During the pandemic, Radu appointed a seasoned manager to run Trencadis to jump-start a new venture. His company Sessions was founded on the verge of transitioning toward remote and hybrid work. Sessions’ mission is to solve the prob ..read more

Our next guest has participated in the Romanian tech ecosystem since its inception. First as an angel investor, today, Dan Mihaescu is the founding partner of GapMinder VC. He has led GapMinder’s investments in companies like FintechOS, TypingDNA, Cartloop, Cyscale, and DruidAI. Before that,  Dan was a seasoned business executive with experience in small, medium to large enterprises, M&A deals, and venture acceleration. Dan is also an INSEAD Alumni and Harvard Business School graduate. In his conversation with Irina, Dan reflects on the evolution of the Romanian tech ecosystem, his de ..read more

Our next guest is one of the most influential people in tech in Europe. Mike Butcher is Editor-at-large at TechCrunch. But his journalistic work has appeared in many media outlets from The Guardian to the BBC, and Bloomberg. He was recognized by the Queen of England for his services in tech industry and journalism. Mike has also advised UK Prime Ministers and the Mayor of London on tech startup policy. He is the founder of the non-profit Techfugees. A global organization providing tech solutions for displaced people. In his conversation with Irina, Mike opens up about how he got the journalism ..read more

Our next guest takes education very seriously. So much so, that she founded an ed-tech startup. Evelina Necula is the co-founder of Kinderpredia. A school management software that simplifies administrative stuff to help teachers, parents, and students communicate better. Today, Kinderpedia is used by schools and kindergartens in 14 countries. In over 2000 schools and kindergartens worldwide. Evelina leans on her marketing and B2B sales experience to scale the company. In her conversation with Georgi Nenov, Evelina shares why and how she decided to become an entrepreneur even though she had a g ..read more